


Of Course it Happened on the One Day Dad is Out

by ocean_dreamer



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Pepper Potts Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Protective Peter Parker, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:20:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22133935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ocean_dreamer/pseuds/ocean_dreamer
Summary: When Peter's alone is the house, he finds a group of spiteful criminals with a vendetta against Tony. There is no way he is letting them get to his dad.
Relationships: James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Pepper Potts & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 9
Kudos: 179
Collections: Irondad Fic Exchange 2019





	Of Course it Happened on the One Day Dad is Out

**Author's Note:**

  * For [peachplease](https://archiveofourown.org/users/peachplease/gifts).



> This is my gift fic to peachplease (on AO3) and zvkos (on tumblr).I've never finished a fic before, but i've written more then i can count, so I hope this satisfies the prompt(s) you sent.  
> They requested Protective Peter, Hurt/comfort, or Peter as Tony's biological kid with a hint of Rhodey. I tried to hit all of those points, so let me know how I did. 
> 
> Thank you all for reading and have a good day!

“Good morning, kiddo.” Tony Stark said, ruffling the curly brown hair of his seventeen year old kid as he passed by on his way to the coffee machine. 

“Morning.” Peter mumbled back, his left cheek pressed to the granite countertop of the kitchen island as his right arm absentmindedly stirred his bowl of cereal. 

“Rough night last night? You were back early, but I feel like you might need this coffee more than I do.”

Peter took his head off of the counter. “Nothing crazy; I just had an essay to write and fell asleep twice doing it.” 

Tony hugged his coffee mug to his chest. “Good, because you’re not getting any of this.” He turned to the machine and poured the steaming black coffee into his “you’re the (iron)man” mug that Peter bought him for Father’s Day months ago. It’s companion, a cheap mug reading “#1 Dad” with the iron man faceplate on the other side, was still in the dish rack from the hot chocolate they had last night, right next to Peter’s “web-slinger” one.   
“Anything interesting today? Only a couple of days left right?”

Peter shoved a spoonful of cereal in his mouth and finished the glass of milk he had sitting next to him. “I have an AP bio test today and a calc one too. But those are my last ones before break. The project for stats is due tomorrow, though, and I think Ned and I are going to finish it at lunch.”

Tony gave his son a quick kiss on the cheek.   
“Don’t work too hard, kiddo.” He took a few steps towards the door, then turned around.   
“Don’t forget about my trip today. It’s Pepper’s one meeting guarantee of the month so I’ll be out until around nine. Try not to have too much fun without me.”

Peter rolled his eyes. “Dad, I think I’ll enjoy my AP Calc test more.”  
He got up to put his dishes in the dishwasher, then gave Tony a quick hug before heading back to his room to get ready. 

“Try not to embarrass Mom too much.” Peter said, a smirk reminiscent of Tony’s favorite expression growing. “She makes really good disappointed faces.”

Tony watched him leave, a small smile on his face. The discovery that they were biological family eight months ago didn’t feel truer than at these moments. For a minute he debated telling Peter he referred to Pepper as mom. 

Nah, he decided. That’s something just for him.   
-  
“So,” Ned nudged Peter as they walked out of their 8th period AP Calculus class. “you’re spending the weekend” he lowered his voice “at the tower right?” 

Peter cracked a smile and nodded. “Yeah. Mr. Sta-dad is apparently planning something fun in the workshop for us to work on. I’ll try to get FRIDAY to tell me what it is before he gets back.”

“Dude. What even is your life?” Ned asked him as they crossed the school’s awning for the last Wednesday of the calendar year. “You are literally the smartest person at this school, you’re a superhero and you live with Tony Stark part time.”   
A honking horn drew their attention to a dark blue car at the end of the block.   
“Oh, my mom’s here.” Ned said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

“Yeah, sure.” Peter responded, waving to Mrs. Leeds. “Tell your mom I said hello.”

“I will.”

Peter watched Ned walk to the car before turning in the opposite direction and heading to Delmar’s. 

Time to be a hero.   
-  
How was patrol, Peter? FRIDAY asked as he entered the tower at 8:00 pm. 

“Boring, honestly. The criminal population decided to boycott the one day I had without Dad’s constant worrying. I did rescue one cat from a drainpipe, though. No idea how it got there.”

Peter pulled off his suit and chucked it into his laundry basket; he’d wash it before patrol tomorrow. After a quick shower, and a comfy pair of pajamas, Peter jumped onto the couch. 

“Alright, FRIDAY, I’m thinking a movie night and Chinese for when Dad gets home. Any suggestions?” 

No response. 

“FRIDAY?”

Peter focused his hearing; there was something moving just outside the penthouse. Grabbing the web-shooter bracelet he left on the coffee table, Peter headed towards the elevator. The buzzing in his head that he’d ignored after he got out of the shower increased, an incessant alarm bell in his head warning him of danger he couldn’t see. 

Peter tiptoed down the hallway, his pj socks making his approach more silent than usual. There was no way they could hear him. But he could hear them. From what he could determine, it was a group of three, and one of them was struggling to open the elevator door. 

“Hurry up, Stark’s gonna be home any minute.” A slap. “Shut up asshole. What if the place isn’t empty?” The second voice was lighter than the first, and a little higher. A woman probably, Peter decided. He mentally began to call them thing one and thing two.   
The last voice was the deepest, and obviously the one in charge. “We don’t have time for this. Blow the thing.”

Peter barley had the time to register the words before the elevator doors blew open, knocking him off his feet and down the hallway.

When the ringing in his ears subsided enough that he could make out the hushed voices of the intruders, Peter was facedown on the floor and covered in dust, with a headache building at his temple. 

“How did you know that wouldn’t set off any alarms?” 

“That was my job, you dumbwad! How did you even get this gig?”

“Both of you, quiet. Get the kid.”

Two sets of hands pulled Peter from the floor, pulling his arms behind his back and holding them there. Peter said nothing, unwilling to divulge any information before he knew what they wanted. 

Thing three came around to Peter’s face, close enough that he could smell the tuna sandwich the guy obviously had for lunch. He resisted wrinkling his nose at the smell, staring into the blue eyes of his captor.

“Where is Tony Stark?”

:.:.:

Tony walked out of the building he’d been stuck in for the past eight hours. He pulled the Starkphone from his pocket and smiled at the picture set as his lock screen: him and Peter in the lab at three in the morning, laughing at something Peter had just told him. Pepper took the picture just before she walked in and made them both go to bed.   
He opened the phone with his very creative password —peter’s birthday backwards from year to day— and hit the number at the top of his favorites list.   
Peter didn’t pick up, which was somewhat strange but FRIDAY had already told him that his son was back in the tower and planned to take a shower. He’d probably get a call back in the next thirty minutes. Tony smiled, listening to Peter’s rambling voicemail. He’d recorded it one day in the lab, months before the discovery that they were related. 

“Hey kid, so I just wanted to let you know that I was thinking about grabbing something to eat from the Italian place that we found near here a couple months ago, so I probably won’t be home until 10:30. See you- actually, since I know you’re home you’re probably planning something obnoxious and I don’t want to miss it so scratch that, I’ll be back by 9. See you soon. Love you, Pete.”

Tony walked to the curb and ducked into his orange Kia. 

“Let’s go home, FRIDAY.”

:.:.:

Before Peter could even consider letting out a sarcastic comment telling the criminals exactly what he would do, his phone went off, blaring AC/DC’s “Iron Man” from the speakers at full volume.   
The woman --thing two-- picked it up and held it out to her boss. 

“It’s Stark.”

Thing three lifted to phone, screen cracked from landing on the ground and showed the screen to Peter, revealing the picture of them from a year ago, wearing Santa hats and sitting in the kitchen with hot apple cider filled mugs in their hands. That day was the inspiration for Peter’s Father’s Day mug gifts. 

“Maybe I should answer this.” 

Three’s eyes, the only things visible from underneath the black masks worn by all three criminals were sharp and cold. Peter wasn’t sure how the other two hadn’t been sent to jail yet, they were obviously amateurs, but he had no doubts regarding their boss.

“No, don’t!” Peter said just before the man accepted the call.

“Why not?” three asked, his eyes narrowing. “Why should I not use this weakness layed out in front of me to get to Tony Stark, when he did not hesitate to do the same for my family? Stark tore us apart. Would you rather I go through you?”

“He’s just on a trip,” Peter said. “He’ll be back later and calling him won’t get him back any faster” Come on FRIDAY, reboot. “and I’m really not that important, and Mr. Stark probably didn’t do whatever it is you think he did-”

Thing two hit him across the face. “Shut up kid.” She tossed the now silent phone against the wall. Peter winced as the cracking sound it made added to his already pounding headache. May’s gonna kill me. 

Come on FRIDAY, just reboot.

“I think that when Stark gets back, he deserves a nice long beatdown, wouldn’t you say kid, for making us wait so long?” Whispered thing one from behind him,voice deep and dark, and Peter began to get desperate. If they didn’t know about spider-man, he couldn’t get out without suspicion, but the idea that Tony would come back to three mostly-deadly people with no qualms against killing had him considering it anyway.

:.:

When Tony arrived at the penthouse, it was three to eight, and he was nervous. Four floors below the penthouse, the gym floor, the elevator lights went dark, plunging the space into an eerie red glow.

It just got worse from there.

:.:

Peter heard the elevator three floors down, less than a minute before it opened.

Thing three heard it just after he did.

“Ahh, Mr. Stark, perfect timing. Are you ready to die? I think it’s about time.”

Peter barely recognized the familiar glint of a gun in the man’s hand before pushing against thing one with more strength than any human should have and crossing the distance between the gun and his father.

“Peter!”

A small series of blasts.

And everything went dark.

:.:.:  
If you asked Tony Stark, he would tell you that the idea of events like that happening in slow-motion was a load of crap.   
Instead, all he did was blink, and his kid (his kid!) was lying on the floor, bleeding. He vaguely remembered shooting concussive blasts at the thugs before yelling at FRIDAY to “get Helen down the the medbay now!”

Four hours and one invasive surgery later, the only thing Tony felt was guilt. The hired thugs had not only managed to disconnect FRIDAY from his penthouse (mostly accidentally he thought; the connections were a disaster) but also put Peter in the medbay two days before he started Winter Break. 

A door opening pulled Tony’s attention from the wall he’d been staring at, as Rhodey walked into the room. 

“How’s he doing?” Rhodes gestured to the kid tucked under two heated blankets and clad in an old hoodie of Tony’s.

Tony sighed. “As fine as one can be with a fresh bullet wound, I suppose.” He pulled his hands down his face, accentuating the tired circles under his eyes. “I don’t even know how they got all the way up here.”

Rhodey pulled out a tablet. “That’s what I’m here for. The Grundy family.” He turned, and swiped the screen, sending pictures of five people up into the large TV. “The father, Solomon, has been in jail for nearly a decade, following your original takedown of illegal Stark Industries weapons, and his wife Talia was imprisoned by you three years ago in a big drug bust. Their three kids, Sebastian, Circe,and Malcolm were here today.” 

“They came for me in my house and messed with my family.” Tony made a move to stand. “I-”

“I’ll handle it Tony,” Rhodey said, pushing him gently back into the chair, “you stay with your kid.”

:.:.:

Two hours later, Tony was pretending to both read a work email and watch TV, all the while waiting for Peter to wake up.   
About midway through a movie tony vaguely recognized as Die Hard, he abandoned all pretenses.   
Peter groaned, his eyes scrunching up before opening lazily and focusing on Tony’s face.

“Hmmm...dad.” 

“Hey Pete. How ya doin’?” 

Peter smiled. “Other than the bullet wound making itself very well known, I’m good. Because you’re good.”

Tony opened his mouth to retort, but Peter cut him off. “I know you’re mad, but I wasn’t going to let you walk in blind to a situation where I had a better chance at surviving in then you. You haven’t even been my dad for a full year yet, I wasn’t going to let you die!” 

Tony sighed. “I know that feeling, kiddo. I feel the same way every single time you get hurt on patrol, or try to challenge yourself in the gym, or even do something stupid like trying to take n professional criminals in civilian clothing.” Peter opened his mouth to interject, but Tony held up a hand. “You don’t need to protect me, kiddo. I’ve lived my life, and I have everything I need right here. I need you to take care of you too. Can you do that for me?” 

Peter nodded. “Only if you promise to do the same.”

Tony held his hand out, and Peter took it, a smile spreading across his face. “To both of us being less self-sacrificing idiots.” 

A laugh from the doorway startled them both. “I’ll believe that when I see it.”

Pepper walked in and sat in the chair next to Tony’s, grasping the hand the wasn’t holding Peter’s. “For now, you get some rest,” She shot Tony a pointed glance. "both of you." Pepper stood up, and headed towards the door. "And I’ve already called your school, Peter to let them know you won’t be attending the next couple of days.”

Peter gasped. “Hey, that means no school until next year!” 

Tony laughed. “It sure does Pete, it sure does.


End file.
